Page 106 of Always Knew It Was You

“I see.” I settle on a couch, opposite Amelia who takes her place on the floor once again. A plethora of books and papers are sprawled in front of her. She also has her iPad propped on a low table and she’s peering at it every now and then before hunching over the books once more.

Then the iPad vibrates and she glances at it. She reads whatever it says and then mutters, “Of course.”

“What’s up?” I ask, halfway not expecting her to answer, at least not without snark. I know how teenage angst can be.

But she must be dying to share the information because with little prompting it starts spilling out.

“It’s this guy that my friend Jace found,” she says. “Jace is a friend I met online who’s helping me solve the case and find the thieves from Madam T’s diary.”

“Right,” I say, recalling the story briefly. “What about them?”

“Well, Jace’s dad is a cop in Texas and according to what he said, there was this guy who mentioned long ago that he thought he’d seen them. Madam T and the two other thieves. It was in Texas and he called the police and reported it and everything, but by the time they got there the thieves were gone. Jace managed to get some of the files from that incident and found the guy who made the report. He wanted to meet up with him and ask him a few questions. But guess what? Now the guy’s missing.”

I frown. “What do you mean he’s missing?”

“Well, Jace went over to his house and they said he’d wandered off somewhere. His family thinks he’s probably just lost because he has dementia or something and has been saying crazy things about seeing ghosts. But I dunno.” She shrugs. “This is like the third dead end we’ve had in the past two months since we’ve been searching for clues. It’s almost like someone doesn’t want us to figure out what happened.”

“Or…” I propose, “it was a weird crime that happened fifty years ago before they had the Internet and probably even before most of the forensic knowledge that we have today. All that evidence is probably lost and rotting somewhere.”

Amelia thinks about it, but her expression remains stubborn. “People have solved lots of cold cases before, even older than this one. If there’s any clue, I’ll find it.” Her chin goes up. “What if they’re still alive? The thieves that is. What if now they know we have it, they come back and try to steal the pearl again?”

“With that much FBI attention on that thing, I don’t think they would be that stupid,” I say. ‘“Also, if they’re still alive they’re going to be what, like eighty? The only things they’re looking to steal are dentures and Depends.”

Amelia smirks a little at that, but then she says, “Anyway. I’m not going to stop looking. It’s what Madam T would have wanted.”

“The dead lady?”

“Yup. But we don’t know if she really is dead. Remember they never saw her body or Vincent, so she could be alive.” Her eyes glitter. “Maybe she’s still in hiding because the other thief wants to kill her. Or maybe something supernatural happened to her and Vincent, and they’re asleep like vampires waiting to be unearthed.”

My eyebrows raise. “Wow.” Who would have thought that sensible-to-a-fault Declan would have such a conspiracy theorist for a daughter? “Anyone ever tell you you’d make an amazing writer?”

She lingers on that thought for a second and shrugs. “Maybe. But I think I want to be a detective when I grow up instead. Dad says he won’t let me because it’s too dangerous. But I’ll probably do it anyway.”

I shake my head and then a beep signifies that a card was scanned over the keypad. The door opens and Declan walks in looking a bit disheveled without Emma. She probably had to get to work. There’s a hickey at the base of his neck and his hair looks like someone was clutching it and pulling. It doesn’t take a genius to tell what he’s been doing.

I let a smirk spread on my lips. “Well, look what the cat dragged in.”

He frowns at me. “Didn’t think you would be coming today.”

I raise an eyebrow. “We have a meeting, don’t we?’

“Yeah, but Emma told me you got locked up last night for starting a riot in the Tiki Bar.”

“You went to jail?” Amelia’s eyes widen and I nod with a grin.

Hopefully, that gives me some street cred.

“Is that where you got the black eye?”

“Yes,” I respond, grinning even more. Carly tried to cover up the bruises with some of her concealer but I guess it didn’t work entirely. “I was defending my woman from some thugs, but one of them got in a sneaky hit.” Luckily, it didn’t hurt too bad and the swelling had gone down considerably after I iced it. Figures that the muscle-bound asshole hit like a total pansy.

“Your Uncle Micah started a riot,” an amused Declan repeats.

“I didn’t start that riot,” I correct. “The asshole who was bothering Carly did.”

“But you threw the first punch.”

“Well, he threw a symbolic punch when he insulted my woman. What was I supposed to do? Stand there like an idiot twiddling my thumb while he went at her? And the bastard grabbed her arm too? You would have done the same thing if that was Emma.”

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